Sir Rudolf Bing (January 9, 1902 - September 2, 1997) was an Austrian-born opera impresario who worked in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, most notably being General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1950 to 1972. He became a British citizen in 1946 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1971.
Born Rudolph Franz Joseph Bing in Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire to a well-to-do Jewish family (his father was an in...
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Sir Rudolf Bing (January 9, 1902 - September 2, 1997) was an Austrian-born opera impresario who worked in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, most notably being General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1950 to 1972. He became a British citizen in 1946 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1971.
Born Rudolph Franz Joseph Bing in Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire to a well-to-do Jewish family (his father was an industrialist), Bing studied at the University of Vienna and as a young man worked in theatrical and concert agencies. In 1927 he went to Berlin, Germany and subsequently served as general manager of opera houses in that city and in Darmstadt.
While in Berlin he married a Russian ballerina, but in 1934, with the rise of Nazi Germany, the Bings moved to the United Kingdom where, in 1946 he became a naturalised British subject. There he helped to found the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and, after the war, organised the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland...
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